Hello all you Boils and Ghouls! First off, I want to personally thank each and every one of you for the safe wishes. I'm finally back, the storm is dissipated and we're 'mostly' safe.
That also means it's back to writing chapters for the Paradox of Remnant! Hurray!
But before we get to that, we need to start off with the questions.
Raidentensho, first off; as I said, Dichro/Steven is his own person but only shares my personality/reactions. Second, his semblance will be a bit more... eternal... than just summoning dead enemies. Lastly, he will have his own mechshift weapon which will be covered later on; hopefully the next chapter if I can get to it.
Fiction Fan 369, the reason Dichro survived is the same reason that he is even in Remnant to begin with; hence the title of the story.
Demons Anarchy of Pride, I plan for a special filler involving Graphite, but, much like the riders, none of the cannon Bugsters will make an appearance in the main story.
jmasta32, Perfect Knockout will be a thing but you need to be patient.
And finally, a disclaimer: I own nothing but Dichro/Steven.
)-Legend-(
"Yo!" - Speaking
'Is he an idiot?' - Thinking
"Dearest love," - Reading
"Kaishin no Ippatsu!" - Specials
)-First Person-(
Numb...
Tired...
Drained...
That's how I felt as I started to come to...
I groaned as a piercing light hit my partially opened eyes... It was stinging so badly that I tried to cover my eyes with a hand, yet the light still came through. I tried to say "Someone turn off the light," yet my mouth fumbled on the words as I slowly regained consciousness. When my eyes finally got used to the light and the pain stopped, I noticed a few blurred figures off in the distance and a few less than blurry ones. What felt like a wave of relief washed over me, yet I was still too incoherent to recognize it; what I did recognize, though, was a ball of gold and light tan standing beside me. "Yang?" I called out, the ball nodding her 'head'. I rubbed my eyes with the balls of both hands trying to clear the water and sleep from them before I tried to sit up; only to be sat up by the very person I had recognized off the bat. Confusion ran rampant through me as the last thing I remembered was being told that I was an Ant Faunus and that I was about to cut off a body part instead of hair... At first, I thought that was a dream... But then I found myself floating in darkness before I was swimming in a bowl of milk or cream or something as a green tiger with orange stripes was lapping it up, so I kinda knew when the actual dream started. That still left the two questions that were ringing through my head.
"Where am I? And what happened?" As I asked this, I felt unease rush through me before looking up at Yang and then at my surroundings; my fear was starting to kick in as I recognized where I was - the infirmary. My breathing hastened in pace as I felt panic start to sink in, though at the time I thought it was mine. Almost immediately, a hand rested on my shoulder but I tried to squirm out of it before arms wrapped around mine. "It's alright," I heard Yang say; somehow this was calming me down as she continued, "No one is here to hurt you. You can relax." My breathing slowed down as I calmed down completely before looking to her and nodded.
"Thanks... Sorry about that..." I apologized.
After some time of just staying there in her arms, I figured she'd let go from being uncomfortable or uneasy as she is still surrounded by her peers, yet she still hadn't - even after I had everything explained to me; about the soulbond I now shared with Yang by Blake, about what was going to happen with my eating habits by Ozpin, and having Nora and to some degree Ruby complain about it being unfair... I was so not looking forward to this.
"So let me get this right..." I started off, "I'm supposed to do the exact opposite of what I've known all my life... because I'm not a human?"
"Essentially, yes," was Ozpin's reply. I merely shook my head as I looked at Yang who smiled nervously as she continued to hold me. Just as I was about to ask if she wanted to let go, Ren spoke up and asked, "Wait a moment... Do Faunus exist where you're from? And if so, what entails physically being considered one?"
I was feeling very reluctant to answer that by saying "Faunus don't exist where I'm from" simply because that would cause too wide of a panic, and that any other answer I could give would only bring about dissent against me by everyone except Ozpin... So I had to give an answer that would make it sound like I was just simply being ignorant. "Where I come from," I began my exposition, "a Faunus is considered any person with mammalian traits such as cat ears, bull horns, etcetera."
Everyone, except the Dumbledore of Remnant, stared at me in what I assumed was disbelief; especially since I could feel Yang's disbelief as she looked down at me wide-eyed. Blake, however, was the first one to actually voice her discontent at this as she said, "H-How can people be so ignorant?!"
Speaking of ignorant, I was trying to feign confusion as I looked to her with a raised eyebrow. "Whatcha mean? Isn't that what normally consists of a Faunus?" I asked. I could feel something akin to distrust coming from Yang as Blake shook her head. "That's only the most common Faunus," she said, "There are other different kinds from avians to reptilians and even insectoids like you. How is it your home's government can get away with that, I'll never know." I could feel the guilt of lying to everyone forming in me, but it was the only way I knew to keep them as in the dark as possible; though Yang would now be the hardest to keep all this a secret from because of our bond... 'I just hope she will understand why I have to do this,' I thought to myself in remorse.
Yang must have felt it as she tightened her hold on me slightly before speaking up, "I think we need to drop this subject for another time..." She let go slowly and as I looked at her, she gave a small smirk as she held her nose. "Besides, you need some cleanin' up; missing clothes or not," she said as if trying to sound mean, but I could feel her joy at trying to be playful and smiled regardless.
"Yeah, something tells me I'm gonna have a 'bath' time if I don't get washed up." I joked. Everyone, even Ozpin, groaned at this; Yang herself, however, was for a different reason - she wanted in on this action. "Oh why do you have to 'soap' up all the fun?" she asked, which prompted everyone but Ozpin and myself to groan again. I felt a bit of disappointment from both her and myself at this one and said, "Girl, that was bad, even for you..."
"I know..." she said before smiling again, "I'd 'lather' avoid bath jokes." That got me to laughing and almost falling off the bed if not for her arms catching me. "Whoa, I think that one was TOO much," she stated as she set me on the floor.
Chuckling, I nodded at her and made for the door to try and leave when Ozpin coughed a little trying to nab my attention; and it worked as I looked up at him. "There is still the matter of discovering exactly what you are capable of, Mr. Spectrum," he said before he took a swig of that coffee of his before speaking up once more, "Both as Dichro Spectrum, and as Kamen Rider Paradox."
"Um, actually," I interrupted, "It's only pronounced that but it's really spelled P-A-R-A-Hyphen-D-X. And don't bother asking why; I didn't make the name up - I'm just following the rules."
With that, Ozpin nodded solemnly and announced, "After classes tomorrow, the amphitheater will be closed off to everyone except the nine of you, Professor Goodwitch, and I. We will only be there to examine your fighting styles both as individuals and as teams." Everyone present nodded their agreement to the conditions but one thing bothered me...
"Uno problema..." I began, "I don't have a mechshift weapon... Or a weapon at all except the GGD, for that matter."
"That can be rectified over the course of the weekend," the headmaster replied, "I'll have one of the second year teams aid you in your task if you feel it is necessary." Knowing what team he would most likely sic' on me to do that, I reluctantly nodded. With that, he simply dismissed us to return to our dorms and left.
)-The Next Day-(
While I didn't get to sleep on a bed last night; still had to sleep out in the hallway just to keep out of everyone's way much to Ruby's protests, I felt a LOT better than I did before having my first bath in almost five days. The only downside? I had locked myself in the bathroom, towel wrapped around my waist, until someone went and cleaned my clothes as I held the GGD in my hand. I wasn't going to trust anyone to even touch it. When the time for classes actually came, the professors were kind enough to excuse me for my lack of uniform due to my... ahem... diminutive stature... Heaven knows they weren't really expecting someone who was as tall as a twelve or thirteen year old to be attending the school, despite me being 16...
And before we drop the topic of classes, the actually classes themselves were... actually pretty standard in terms of effectiveness. And by that, I mean we simply had to listen to lectures for majority of the time; of which I nearly fell asleep during four of them. I felt pretty disappointed not only in the actual classes but in myself as well each time it happened; and each time it happened, Yang was right there at the end of class to give me a pat on the back to try and cheer me up before rushing off to her next class. I knew she was getting bored of them as well, though; I could feel her boredom just like it was my own... Ever since I had learned about the soulbond that Yang and I share, I started feeling a sort of self-doubt about whether this was a good thing or not. Effectively, if I die I'm taking her soul with me and leaving the body alive and behind - something I'm not too keen on. If she dies on me I deserve whatever I get, but I don't think I could handle even making my worst enemy go through that. Still, it has it's benefits I guess... Like finding out where I need to go if I ever get lost... Which is quite literally around EVERY corner. Lunch came and went... It was um... Eventful... Seeing everyone try to shove cake down my throat, however, wasn't the best course to take... The reason they had to hold me down, though, was plain and simple.
I... Hate! Sweets...
The only reason I ate those berries during my time in the Emerald Forest was because they were the 'only' food source I had access to; if I had another choice, I would have avoided the berries and just stayed in the bush as a shelter. Back on track, if it wasn't for Ruby's suggestion of putting fire dust on everything I found too sweet, I'd have probably had every single sugary sweet melted from my gaze alone... I'll be honest, though, I didn't think it was actually safe to consume dust of any kind like that, but once I did I almost fell in love with it; now I know how to fix up candies from now on!
The rest of the day continued as I said until classes were finally over and the P.A. system asked for both Teams RWBY and JNPR to the now emptied amphitheater. When we arrived, I noticed Ozpin and Glynda right off the bat in front of the door along with Professor Port standing next to the headmaster and a man with messy green hair and disheveled clothes wearing Full Moon glasses that I had no idea how he could see through them standing next to Goodwitch; Professor Oobleck at his oddest, everyone.
"Good, everyone is here," Ozpin began before I interrupted by calling out "Excuse me a moment." I pointed to Oobleck and Port before asking, "Do they know about my you-know-what?"
"Not yet, they don't, but I feel it will be necessary for them to study it as well due to their involvement as your professors," the headmaster explained. Though I didn't like it, I agreed with the logic of the situation; they would need to know eventually - just like Yang would need to know the truth. The professors motioned for all of us to enter the chamber and locked the doors behind us once we did. Ozpin quickly strode over and on to the stage before turning to the collective teams.
"For this first exhibition," he began, "we will be pairing members of each team against members of the other team for two on two combat. With this, Mr. Spectrum will be able to discern who is capable of what before deciding his opponents for all three forms as well as helping him discern a potential leader for Team JNPR. Ms. Rose and Ms. Schnee will be sparring against Mr. Arc and Ms. Nikos; Ms. Valkyrie and Mr. Ren will be sparring against Ms. Xiao Long and Ms. Belladonna."
"Yeah, this won't end well," I interjected. When asked why that is by Professor Port, I simply replied, "Because when it comes to Jaune's fighting skills, pitting him against Ruby and Weiss is like feeding a small child to a pack of rabid wolves. While I don't doubt that Pyrrha on her own COULD defeat both girls, it's her ability to protect Jaune that I reserve my doubts for."
"Then what do you propose, Mr. Spectrum?" Glynda asked. I put a finger to my chin and closed my eyes in thought before finally speaking. "A 2 on 1 handicap... Jaune will be allowed to take both girls on his own PROVIDED that they are barred from using their semblance at any given time; afterall, like me, he doesn't even have a semblance yet so his sparring partners would need to be equally fair - though I doubt his opponents in the future will be as forgiving, he needs to be brought into this one step at a time."
"While those terms, under normal circumstances, are more than agreeable," Professor Oobleck stated, "I'm afraid that they will not be held to those conditions."
"Alright, but if he dies; you're planning the funeral and telling his parents," I replied shrugging my shoulders as the teams separated into their respective matches.
)-With JP and RW-(
)-Third Person PoV-(
Jaune and Pyrrha stood next to each other and across from Ruby and Weiss on the far left side of the stage. Both pairs of partners faced each other and nodded once before they drew their respective weapons with Jaune being the slowest and most reluctant as he unsheathed his sword and brought his shield up. "So uh... Any chance you girls would go easy on me?" he asked in vain hope that they would be merciful to him.
Ruby hummed as she brought a finger to her chin and looked up slightly as she pretended to think on it before turning to the blond young man and smiling deviously and saying, "Mmmm... Nope."
Slumping his shoulders in defeat, he sighed exaggeratedly as he got into a traditional knight stance with his shield raised and his sword held low before saying, "Oh well, it was worth a shot." The partners stared each other down before the reaper girl vanished in a flurry of rose petals. The heiress simply glanced at where her partner used to be before doing a double take and stomping a foot on the floor of the stage in annoyance shouting, "Ruby, you are INSUFFERABLE!" As she had her small tantrum, to which Jaune and Pyrrha both stared at her flabbergasted, a red blur zipped behind the spartan huntress and struck her in the back before moving to Jaune in the same manner; this knocked both of them forward with Pyrrha recovering with a roll and her partner simply trying to stand upright again.
"Ohhhh, my back..." the poor boy groaned before noticing a glowing white diagram appearing beneath himself and Pyrrha. He quickly bolted to the girl and shoved her out of the way to stop her from getting caught in an explosion of ice. "Keep an eye on the ground," he warned her, "If you see one of those, consider it lava." Not quite getting the reference, the spartan merely nodded before standing upright with her back against her partner's. The red blur from earlier was now striking at every vantage point it could find from the top of their heads to the backs of their hands; only to be blocked by either a shield or a sword. Using an impact shot to increase her altitude, Ruby called out to her partner, "Weiss, split'em up!"
"Don't need to tell me twice," the heiress replied before summoning another glyph underneath both of their opponents, but this one being twice as large as the one before it. Both of them noticed this and tried to move out of the way, but only the Invincible Girl escaped it; the blond knight, however, got caught in the explosion with formed jagged edges of ice all around his legs, right forearm and left bicep - effectively trapping him in the pseudo sculpture.
"GAH! Geez, I'm stuck!" Jaune cried out in panic as he struggled to free himself to no avail, only to notice his partner was now trying to survive a flurry of red strikes to her back as she and the heiress were now fighting head to head; rapier clashing with sword as Pyrrha used her momentum to leap over Weiss when she anticipated Ruby's attack; he had to help her somehow, but all he could do in his current predicament was sit there and watch. 'Unless I do something,' he thought to himself, 'Pyrrha's done for. C'mon, Jaune, think!' That's when the idea struck him; he had to give her his sword in order to help her stand a chance. Jaune tried to focus all of his strength into freeing his right arm and was rewarded with the shattering of the ice surrounding it. "Pyrrha!" he called out before flinging his sword at her with the intent of letting her use it; instead, it spun straight at the girl, who ducked under it in time to see it hack off a good half of her ponytail and then slam hilt-first into Ruby's forehead with a loud and metallic thunk, knocking her over before slapping Weiss on top of her head with the flat of the blade and clattering on the floor. This was the distraction Pyrrha needed as she slammed her shield into the heiress before turning to her trapped partner.
He simply shrugged his free arm as he said, "Er, sorry about that - was meaning to give you my sword, not a haircut..."
She simply smiled at him before taking aim with Miló as she cocked the weapon back, changed it into it's javelin form, and warned him, "Stay still, Jaune; I'll have you out of there." She threw the javelin forward as it's rocket-propelled trajectory nailed the ice at the center and shattered the entire structure, freeing him as he fell to the ground with a yelp.
As this was going on, a certain dichromatic boy couldn't help but slap his face and smear his hand down it in frustration that he just unintentionally and indirectly made yet another change in this world's history due to him being a 'judge'.
)-Meanwhile-(
)-With WB and NR-(
Blake simply drew Gambol Shroud out of it's sheath before turning it into it's pistol form before eyeing her opponents up cautiously with Ren doing similar as he drew his twin weapons from their holsters on his belt. Yang, however, was busy conversing with Nora as she activated her gauntlets.
"So who do you think's gonna win?" she asked the pink loving hammer thrower who simply shrugged in response. "Well then," the blonde brawler started to taunt, "This is gonna be a piece of cake."
"You mean 'a piece of pancake'?" Nora asked, giggling at her own joke.
"Meh, I'm more of a waffle person," Yang replied nonchalantly. This made Nora freeze up in wide-eyed shock and her partner look between the two out of visible fear. The girl's shock was replaced with anger with each word she spoke as she asked, "What did you say?"
"Uh oh..." were the only words Yang could get out of her mouth before she had to duck a close shave from Magnhild; her sudden fear of the girl overriding the anger at having lost a few locks of hair just now as she made a quick dash to get away from the girl using her gauntlets to further push her momentum.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU DIRTY WAFFLE LOVER!" Nora cried out as she ran after the taller girl. The perplexed cat faunus simply looked on in confusion as she tried to make sense of the situation before Ren called out to her. "Blake, I need your help," he quickly pleaded to her, "When Nora gets like this, she tends to lose herself so I need you to find a way to restrain her while I snap her out of it." She only nodded as she ran after the carrot-topped girl who kept swinging at, and missing, Yang who kept running and dodging her attacks trying to calm the girl down and failing.
When she got close enough, Black threw her weapon around one of Nora's ankles and pulled as hard as she could, causing the girl to slip and face-plant into the stage floor and Ren to catch up to her, before pulling a small-ish jar out of his pocket; the jar itself had something folded inside of it with a label on it that read "In case of Angry Nora, open lid." He opened the lid and pulled out the contents, which unfolded into a whole pancake, and held it up to the girl who sniffed it before sitting up and nabbing it from her friend. After giving it one final look, Nora finally gobbled down the fluffy round disk of sweetness with a brilliant smile on her face as Ren sighed in relief. Yang looked at the two and nervously smiled before saying, "Well... that was a thing... How about we just call it a draw and forget this ever happened?" Nora looked up at Yang after finishing her pancake and cocked her head to the side as she asked, "Forget what ever happened?"
"Exactly," the blonde brawler replied before suddenly feeling a wave of frustration washing over her and looked at the cause of it to see Dichro in the middle of a face-palm. She looked in the direction her bondmate was looking at the time and found out why he suddenly felt annoyed; if she had to guess, Jaune must have given Pyrrha an accidental haircut judging from her now shorter than half ponytail.
)-First Person PoV-(
I couldn't take it... I had to stop the match before things got even worse. I looked over to the professors and asked, "Can we end this; I've picked out my opponents...?" Ozpin simply nodded and looked to be ready to speak before I cupped my hands to either side of my mouth and shouted as loud as my lungs could carry my voice.
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH!"
That broke the combatants up as Ruby tripped with Pyrrha and Weiss flinching and Jaune jumping in shock before he tried to clean his ear out... 'Smooth move, idiot,' I scolded myself before drawing everyone's attention to me and saying, "I've picked out not only my opponents but who will potentially be the leader for Team JNPR and that leader is... Jaune Arc." They all looked shocked and were clearly about to congratulate him, but I held up my hand in a stopping motion. "Please note, however, that I chose him by the skin of his damned TEETH!" I shouted out before continuing, "When it comes to quick thinking and strategy making, his skills are bar-none one of the best I've seen, but his skills as a fighter on his own are nonexistent even by beginner's standards. As for my opponents... I have chosen Weiss Schnee to fight my human form... Sorry, Faunus form - still trying to get used to being called that."
Said heiress simply harrumphed as she crossed her arms; I think she was disappointed that she doesn't get to fight one of my Para-DX forms, but I can't quite tell...
"Pyrrha Nikos to fight my Puzzle Gamer form..."
Pyrrha simply nodded before Port butted-in and asked, "Puzzle Gamer form? What does he mean?" Ozpin simply laid his concerns aside as he said, "You will find out soon enough, Peter."
I nodded before I resumed calling out my opponents. "And my final opponent will be Yang Xiao Long against my Fighter Gamer form," I announced, and felt a sense of pride coming from Yang and looked over to her to catch her at the end of a fist pump. That got me to chuckling a little before I turned back to Jaune. "To start off, however, I will need to borrow a weapon as I don't have one myself," I said as I walked up to the ditzy knight before asking, "May I borrow yours, Jaune, and show you just how you can really use it to your advantage?"
He simply nodded as he handed me Crocea Mors and left the stage with the others in tow, except for Weiss who simply looked on at them leaving the stage before staring me down. "You do realize you just signed your own death warrant, right?" she asked me in an icy tone as she got into her traditional fencing stance. I simply shrugged as I adjusted the shield so that the bottom was pointed in the direction my fist was before replying, "Hey, at least you're not going against Para-DX, so that's a win." I banged the flat of the blade against the shield a couple of times in a taunt before I held the shield up in a blocking position with the sword resting on top of it and pointing downward slightly. The heiress fell for it as she used her glyphs to dash straight at me. Feigning an attack, she quickly changed directions to try and strike at my upper back, but I adjusted the shield enough to pass it over my head and rest it on my shoulder before I felt the tell-tale pressure of the impact from her weapon hitting the shield. As if she were changing tactics, I saw her move around to my front and try to make a thrust with her rapier, but simply stepped back as I pushed the sword against her blade to further alter her momentum before landing a solid blow to her head as I used the shield as a giant boxing glove; though arguably I MAY have put TOO much force into the punch as she was sent careening through the back wall of the amphitheater.
"Stupid ant strength..." I whispered and chided myself before shouting out, "My bad!"
)-Third Person PoV-(
"My word!" Professor Port exclaimed as he looked on in shock, as did most of the students and staff present. The only one not surprised by this was Ozpin as he sipped his fresh mug of coffee. "That would be the 'legendary' Ant Faunus strength that Dichro just demonstrated," the headmaster said when he finished his drink.
The students, however, were more concerned for what may or may not have happened to Weiss. "Did you see that?!" Yang exclaimed as she punched the air, "He sent that Ice Queen flying!" Jaune cringed a little as he turned to the blonde brawler and spoke his own concerns, "Yeah... Straight through a wall..." Pyrrha added in her own two bits by saying, "That's at least four feet thick and made of concrete... Using YOUR shield, Jaune."
"I just hope Weiss is okay..." Ruby said in concern. Yang noticed this and felt a pang of worry from her bondmate before seeing him rushing to the debris. "She'll be fine," she assured her baby half-sister, "Look, Dichro's even checking on - oh c'mon, be serious..."
"What happened?" Blake asked. Yang turned to her in slight annoyance before answering, "I think Ms. Cold Shoulder just got light headed from the impact... I could feel Dichro trying to hold back his laughter just now."
"At least we know she's okay now... Right?" Blake once more spoke and got a nod in return from her partner.
Dichro came down carrying the unconscious heiress over his shoulders and set her down on one of the chairs before turning to the professors. "I guess there goes my Faunus demonstration..." he said as he shrugged his shoulders before lifting his jacket up a little and pulling out the familiar yellow-knobbed blue device and asking, "Now then... Which one you wanna see first?"
xXx
And there it is; the TRUE tenth chapter of Paradox of Remnant! Hope you enjoyed!
And until next time, guys...
See ya next game!